Records Fall on First Day of Speedo Grand Challenge

LOS ANGELES, April 30. RECORDS tumbled faster than you can say "Ian Thorpe" as the waters of the McDonald's Olympic Swim Stadium on the campus of USC were roiled to a boil opening night of the 2004 Speedo Grand Challenge.

With a mere 68 days remaining until the start of the U.S. Olympic Trials July 7 in Long Beach and just a week before the start of the 27th European Championships in Madrid, in which several swimmers competing here will also participate, the pace has quickened but the majority of athletes are still in heavy training.

However, irrespective of their training status, several Americans and Stanford's Markus Rogan, who represents Austria internationally, found the warm (and smog-free!) LA weather most conducive to fast swimming.

The meet is different in format from the traditional three finals series in that only four swimmers competed in the championship final, utilizing lanes three-six. The consols have the usual eight as do the bonus consols. Normally this meet is held over Memorial Day Weekend but due to the impending Olympic Trials has been moved up. Santa Clara will be Memorial Day Weekend this year with the Janet Evans Invitational scheduled for June 10-13 at the now-under-construction trials pool.

Rogan clocked a meet-record 2:03.11 en route to gold in the 200 IM just minutes after former Cardinal All-America Gabrielle Rose — a Sydney Olympian — tied the meet-standard in her race by winning in 2:15.80. Auburn's Maggie Bowen did the same time three years ago and later that summer struck gold at the World Championships in Fukuoka with a 2:12.93 — just .02 off Summer Sanders' American-record 2:12.91 from the Barcelona Olympics a decade earlier.

Rogan's career-best is 2:00.50 that won him t he bronze at the '02 Euro Championships in Berlin. He'll leave for Madrid early next week Rose's pr is 2:13.68 from the U.S. Nationals at Clovis three summers ago and she ranks 9th on the all-time U.S. performers' list.

Bowen, American record-holder in the 200 yard IM and a former NCAA champ for Coach David Marsh's Auburn Tigers, was runner-up in the consols behind USC's Kaitlin Sandeno, who a few events later would win the 400 free.

Runner-up on the men's side was Northwestern's Mark Hamming, a Wildcat All-American who went an unshaved pr 2:05.39 for an Olympic Trials cut. He also was runner-up in the consols of the 100 breast to Minnesota's Mike Brown (1:03.94-1:05.51) with his time a Nationals cut.

A pair of Canadian veterans, record-holder Joanne Malar and Marianne Limpert, both Sydney finalists, were second and third behind Rose. Fourth went to Shelley Ripple, now known as Shelley Ripple-Johnson. She's another former Stanford NCAA champ (200 fly) who retired after the '02 collegiate season but couldn't stay from the pool after contracting a severe case of "Olympic fever."

The 100 breaststroke races saw two more records buried as Card Tara Kirk, NCAA Swimmer of the Year this season blasted the women's standard and Auburn's Mark Gangloff — Pan-Am gold-medalist last summer — did likewise.

Kirk, whose pr is 1:08.13 from the Pan-Pacs in Yokohama two years ago, went a sizzling 1:08.47, breaking the hours-old record of 1:08.67 from the prelims by Long Beach Wilson High and Nova-trained Jessica Hardy. Hardy was CIF Division 1 champ last season and her time is a pr by several seconds. In the finals she was third (1:09.76). Runner-up was former Cal All-America and Sydney Olympian Staciana Stitts (1:09.51) while Oregon State All-America Birte Steven, a German, took fourth (1:09.86).

Before Hardy set the record with her prelim swim, the old meet standard was 1:10.33 by Kirk from '01. At NCAA, Kirk raced to a world record in the 100 breast (sc meters) but she's got a ways to go to get the American record long course — 1:07.05 by Megan Quann to win gold at Sydney.

Gangloff swam a solid 1:02.40, breaking the old mark of 1:03+ by Nova's Steve West from five years ago. His pr is 1:00.95 that won the title at Santo Domingo, and he's also got a pair of NCAA Championship rings as a member of the Tigers' winning team the past two years.

The 50 sprint saw "only" one record fall but it was impressive as Nova's Jason Lezak clocked a22.51. His pr is 22 flat from the '02 spring Nationals in Minneapolis, second among active U.S. sprinters to Olympic co-gold medalist Gary Hall now that Cal's Anthony Ervin has officially retired. Lezak's been a member of every U.S. National team since Sydney in both the 50-100 frees and ranks among the world's top half-dozen sprinters.

On the women's side former Cal All-American Haley Cope won in 25.67, just .02 off Dara Torres' record of 25.65 from four years ago. Cope's pr is 25.25 from the Wo4rld Championship finals in Fukuoka in '01.

Interestingly, Cal superstar Natalie Coughlin was disqualified in the consols of this race after having qualified fifth. She made amends by taking fourth in the 400 free.

The winner was USC's Sandeno, who went a solid 4:13.06 to Cal's Ashley Chandler's 4:13.63. Canadian 400-800 record-holder Biittany Rreimer (4:14.36) was third with Coughlin (4:15.35) fourth. Consols winner was former Trojan NCAA champ Lindsey Benko (4:15.35).

The meet continues through Sunday with prelims at 9 AM PDT and finals at 5 PM.

LANE LINES: The trucks carrying the portable pool that will be used for the Trials have arrived and construction has begun, reports USC coach Mark Schubert, also head Olympic coach. He discounts the possibility of anything untoward occurring at Athens, saying: "They (U.S. Swimming and the USOC) wouldn't let us go over if anything was amiss. The only thing I'm worried about is whether the pool will be finished in time."

Schubert noted that it's "almost as dangerous driving on the Santa Monica Freeway from here to the [Santa Monica] Pier" and observed that Thursday a potential terrorist attack against a West LA mall prove a false alarm. "Nothing happened and I have every confidence the Games will come off just fine," he said.